FIELD OF THE INVENTION AND PRIOR ART
The present invention relates to a multi-adjustable surgical table, shelf, or tray apparatus, which is adapted to be releasably secured to the bed rail of an operating table for vertical and horizontal adjustment, which has a fixed upper tray or shelf and a multi-adjustable lower tray or shelf, all for the purpose of assisting the surgeon during the course of an operation by permitting the placement of the tools and materials of the surgeon in the most adjacent and convenient location for immediate access during the course of an operation. In the most preferred embodiment, both trays or shelves comprise transparent sheet form material as their major planar surface, for maximum visibility of the patient area of greatest interest to the surgeon even when the surgical tray apparatus of the invention is in place and in use.
Surgical or ether screens have been in use in operating rooms in association with operating tables for years. Ordinarily, such a screen or support therefor is affixed to the operating table and appropriate sheets are draped over the support to provide an unobstructed area for the surgeon on the one side of the screen and for the anesthesiologist on the other side of the screen. For the operating surgeon, the accessibility of the necessary surgical tools, implements, or materials has been a problem generally solved by providing the same on a "set-up" table adjacent the operating table and having the same provided to the surgeon by a nurse trained in surgery. Although such practice will undoubtedly continue, the availability of surgical implements and materials at a readily-accessible location adjacent the area of the operation in progress by means of the present invention is designed at least partly to alleviate the hardship of the surgeon's role in the operating procedure, to make all implements and materials more readily accessible, and to accomplish these desirable ends without the introduction of objects into the area of the operation which would be of an interfering or objectionable nature, for which reason the multi-adjustable surgical table of the present invention is adapted to take the place of the usual ether or surgical screen and to provide, in addition thereto, a plurality of surgical trays or shelves, one of which is capable of multiple adjustments so as to fit the needs and convenience of the operating surgeon in any particular case.